


Once Upon A Summer

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-05
Updated: 2013-11-06
Packaged: 2017-12-31 13:29:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1032234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three best friends and One Direction clash on a beach at the beginning of the summer, creating a whirlwind fairytale romance for the books... Well sort of... The wind is generally calm, and the only book it's written about in is this one... And I'm not too sure about the fairytale part, cause c'mon people this is reality we're talking about here, not everyone gets 3 wishes or their own personal Prince Charming. But they may just come close.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Partnered by the AMAZING KaytBase from over on Wattpad, that gorgeous, perfect, incredible girl, whom I love with all my heart! Sorry for any mistakes, or weird spelling... things... Any additional random musings or notes at the end. Thanks, and enjoy!

Ah, summer at last! Junior year is finally over, and now I have 3 months to do whatever I want! Well…almost whatever I want. I would have loved to go on the class trip to Europe, but my dad recently lost his job. There was no way my family could afford such an expensive trip! Luckily, my best friends Andrea and Kayt weren’t going on the trip either, so we were going to hang out all summer! 

 

“Bri!!!” Speak of the devil! I turned around and saw Andrea walking towards me, trying to simultaneously avoid the throngs of people, hold her purse, carry four textbooks, and balance a tray of “last day of school” cupcakes. She wasn’t succeeding, and after she almost dumped the tray all over the floor, I ran towards her and grabbed it out of her hands. 

 

“Careful babe, you’re going to hurt yourself! And why do you still have all of your books? We were supposed to turn them in a week ago!” 

 

She looked at me guiltily, “I forgot?”

 

“Hah, somehow I knew you would. I’ll take this,” I said, gesturing towards the tray, “You go turn your books in.” 

 

“Thank you! I’ll be right back, I promise!” She dropped her purse and the delicate deserts on the floor, and ran off with her books, yelling “sorry” over her shoulder. 

 

“It’s cool,” I yelled back, causing several people in the hallway to stop walking for a second and stare at me. I was used to it though. Being a drama kid, having people staring at you constantly is basically in the job description. I bent down to pick up the tray and her purse off the ground, when someone jumped on my back, knocking me over. I froze for a minute, feeling the cupcakes in the tray squish and the frosting begin to seep into my shirt and slip down the front onto my chest. The person on top of me was quiet for a couple beats, and then suddenly began shouting in my ear, speaking so quickly I had to concentrate to hear what she was saying. 

 

“Oh my gosh! Briana, are you okay? Oh God, I’m so sorry Bri! I can't believe I did that! I just got so excited ‘cause it’s the last day of school, and you said we could go to the beach, and it’s like, the perfect beach day, and we’re done with school, and it’s finally summer, and that new bathing suit you bought is so cute I just couldn’t wait to see it. I’m so sorry, are you hurt, did you fall hard, did I squish you, am I squishing you, did I ruin your shirt, oh crap, I love that shirt, well loved that shirt, it's probably ruined now, what with all the icing and cupcake goop and all the little papers that are on the outside of the cupcakes. Oh, um Bri... Briana I think, um. I think there's um- I think you... Actually no, you definitely have icing down you shirt. It's all over your neck, and your chest and it's down your shirt, and- oh gosh, it's all squished up into you boo-” 

 

“Kayt!!” Silence. Finally. “It’s okay. I’m totally fine. You just knocked me over. Into a tray of cupcakes. That were on the floor. No biggie. And you didn’t squish me. You're too tiny to squish me. Just please calm down, okay? And stop. rambling. Okay?” I looked down at my shirt, but it didn't really matter. I could feel it. In places it definitely shouldn't be. Crap. I totally had icing in my boo-

 

“OH MY GOD!! What the hell happened? I leave for two seconds and now you’re on the floor, with Kayt on top of you, and oh MY CUPCAKES! KAYT!! What the heck? Get off of her Kayt, you're squishing her onto the floor. Oh God, your shirt is totally ruined! I loved that shirt! It's all down the front, and down the shirt, which means it's totally all up in your boo-”

 

“Andrea! Can everyone just please STOP RAMBLING AND GET ME UP OFF THIS FLOOR?!?!?!?! Please???” Kayt disappeared from on top of me, and they both pulled me up. 

 

“Thank you!! And yes, I am fully and completely aware that I have icing IN MY BOOBS!!” We all stared at each other for a minute in silence, until Kayt broke it with a little snort-giggle, which turned into a sort of gasping giggle, and then a little body-heaving trying to not completely burst out laughing laughter, until she gave up and just erupted in loud, full blown laughter. Andrea and I stared at her for a minute until I just couldn't resist, and busted out laughing with her. Apparently, Andrea couldn’t resist either, so there we were, Kayt and I covered in icing, and Andrea, laughing our asses off in the middle of a slow-moving, crowded hallway. Yeah, it really was a good thing we were used to being stared at, because literally everyone in that hallway had stopped to turn and watch. I wish I could say that this totally wasn’t normal for us, and that it was last day of school excitement and too much sugar filled icing from Andrea’s cupcakes influencing our behavior… But it was normal. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Andrea bent down to dislodge the cupcake pan from- where it was still stuck to my chest, God that icing was like glue! Kayt grabbed up my bag from where it had dropped when I bent to pick up Andrea's cupcake pan, and grabbed my arm, pulling me to stand between her and Andrea. Once Drea had retrieved her bag, she linked arms with me, and the three of us walked down the hallway Wizard of Oz style, walking into the courtyard and then out of the school, finally free, and about to have the BEST summer of my life... With icing in my boobs... Well, you can't have everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the really short chapter, but, like the title says, it's just the prologue, the next one will be much longer! Kudos and Comment if you enjoyed or you have a...comment, and look out for Chapter 1(or 2 I guess, whatever, you get the gist)!!!! Thanks!  
> -Bri and Kayt


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Partnered by the AMAZING KaytBase from over on Wattpad, that gorgeous, perfect, incredible girl, whom I love with all my heart! Sorry for any mistakes, or weird spelling... things... Any additional random musings or notes at the end. Thanks, and enjoy!

Even though I walked out of school with my head held high, you can’t exactly go to the beach with icing all in your boobs. So, plan A, go home, change out of the icing covered clothing, and then commence the trip to the beach. Andrea, Kayt and I walked into our crazy packed school parking lot, trying to not get killed by crazed teenagers as they escaped for two and a half months of freedom. We finally made it through safe and unharmed, and arrived at my car. I loved my car! He was a 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, and he was my baby. I had been saving up money since I was five, and bought him all on my own. Kayt had called shotgun during the trek to the car, so Andrea chucked all her stuff into the backseat, barely missing my bright purple beach bag with her smashed tray of cupcakes. I hopped in the front seat, and buckled my seat belt trying to avoid getting the icing from my shirt all over it.

Kayt affectionately pat the dash board and said, “Hi Freddie! Ready for an awesome summer?” Oh, did I forget to mention that my car’s name is Fred? Yeah, it is. And it’s awesome. So deal with it! Five minutes later we finally made it out of the “Danger Zone” (a.k.a. the school parking lot) and started up the super steep hill to go to my house. I had turned on the radio to some random station, and was trying to find Jack F.M. while also paying attention to the road, when I was suddenly, and forcefully, smacked on the back of my head.

“Ouch! What the hell was that for?” I yelled, turning around to look at Andrea for a second. Luckily, we were at a red light, so I could focus all my attention on her and not have to worry about driving.

“Hey! Language! You’re going to corrupt Freddie’s innocence,” Kayt shouted, protectively rubbing the dashboard of my car. To be perfectly honest, Fred had heard much worse things than hell, but I certainly wasn’t going to tell Kayt that!

“My car, my choice of vocabulary,” I said to Kayt. Then, I turned to Andrea and asked, “Why the heck did you just smack me?”

“Green,” Kayt warned me, so I turned back towards the light and punched the gas, zooming up the hill. “Yeah, why did you just smack her?” Kayt asked, turning in her seat to face Andrea.

“Because,” Andrea explained, “she’s driving in the opposite direction of the beach! It’s that way!” she exclaimed, pointing out the back of my car.

“Of course we’re not going to the beach right now!” I shouted, exasperated. “I have to go home and clean off the icing from your cupcakes that is currently all over me! Then we will go to the beach.”

“Oh, okay, that makes sense. And sorry about the icing,” she said with a guilty look on her face.

“It’s not YOUR fault,” I told Andrea, while looking directly at Kayt, “is it Kayt?”

“I’m sorry! I forgot how bad your balance has been since your surgery! I was really excited cause you said we were going to go to the beach, and I flubbed.” She looked so sad I just couldn’t stay mad at her.

“It’s fine,” I said, “you were excited. Just don’t do it again!” I should probably explain everything before your guys’ heads explode. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when I was ten years old, and in April, I’d had an intestinal perforation. Basically, a part of my intestine decided it would be a good idea to suddenly burst open with no warning. Sounds fun, right? Not! Anyways, I had to get surgery in May to take out the damaged section, and I had almost fully recovered, aside from the whole having no sense of balance issue.

Kayt was having trouble finding Jack F.M. and was starting to get frustrated. “Come on Freddie, work with me here!” I leaned over the steering wheel and banged the top of the dashboard hard. Jack F.M. suddenly flowed through the speakers, and Kayt turned it up. “I don’t know why that works,” she laughed, “but it works!”

We rode through several jam packed side streets and finally pulled up to my house. My mom’s white VW Jetta and my dad’s white Ford Escape sat in the driveway, while my grandparents’ green VW golf and tan Toyota Fortuner were parked in front of our house. I parked behind the Golf, and got out with the girls, grabbing my school bag from the trunk on my way into the house. I waved at my next-door neighbor Sylvia and her husband Rory before unlocking the front door and walking inside. I immediately heard my grandparents laughing in the living room, my brother, Patrick, banging around in his room upstairs, and my mom washing stuff in the kitchen. I walked into the living room and said hello to both my mom’s parents and my dad’s parents, who were both visiting for Pat’s graduation. My dad was talking on the phone to his boss, so I just waved, received a nod and a wave back, and continued on into the kitchen. My mom was just putting the last dish in the dishwasher, and closed it with a click.

“Hi mom!” I said, walking over to the fridge to grab a can of apple juice.

“Hi sweet…what happened to you?! Why are you covered in icing?” While saying the last sentence, she had turned and looked at Andrea, who had followed Kayt and I into the kitchen, raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms across her chest.

Kayt raised her hand and said, “Actually, this one was me. I forgot about the whole balance thing and jumped on her back, which made her fall face first into a tray of cupcakes. The cupcakes were hers though!” She explained, pointing at Andrea, who was searching through the fridge and emerged holding a bag of celery.

“What?” she asked

“Never mind, just go back to your celery!”

My mom looked at us in amusement. “So Kayt, you jumped on Briana’s back, knocking her over into a tray of cupcakes which Andrea had brought to school?”

“Yup!” The three of us said in unison. Yeah, we’re freaky like that. Anyways…

“Okay then. You have all officially surpassed my expectations of how weirdly you can act. Congratulations!” Then she turned to me and asked, “Are you all still planning on going to the beach?”

“Yeah, I just need to shower!” Remembering why I was at my house, I ran off towards my room, apple juice and BFF’s in tow. “Thanks mom!!”  
“Sounds good! You better hurry though,” she shouted as I ran up the tan carpeted stairs, trying to not drip icing onto them. “I don’t want you late for your brother’s graduation!”

“Aye-Aye captain!” I shouted over my shoulder, and continued down the hallway towards my room. Patrick came out into the hallway, took one look at me, turned around, and walked right back into his room, shaking his head and laughing.

“Classic, just classic!” he chuckled, then shut his door. I stuck my tongue out at him, or where he was a second ago, and continued on to my room. When my family had moved to Laguna Niguel, my parents said I could paint my room any color I wanted, as long as they approved. Three of my walls were a solid lavender color, and the other one was lavender and cream striped, with my bed up against it. It was a daybed with an antiqued white wooden frame that had drawers underneath, and a really fluffy purple comforter on top. I also had a large white wooden antiqued bookshelf and a white antique desk in my room as well. My mom coordinated my stuff, so all the furniture matched perfectly. I also had a bathroom that was adjoined to both Patrick’s room and mine.

Kayt immediately flopped down face-first onto my bed and yelled, “Oh, sooo comfy!” At least, I think that’s what she said. I couldn’t tell for sure, because her face was stuffed in my pillow, so her words were all muffled. Andrea glanced at me with a mischievous look in her eyes, and took a running leap, landing on top of Kayt, who sank so far into my bed that I could no longer see her. Kayt started flailing her arms around, trying to communicate to Andrea that she couldn’t breathe well, but Andrea wasn’t paying attention. So, Kayt shoved her off the bed, sat up, and started coughing and panting, trying to get her breath back. Luckily, Andrea didn’t hit my wooden floor, but landed on the pillows she had knocked off my bed when she jumped on Kayt, so she was fine. I just laughed at the both of them, grabbed my towel off my chair that I had left it on that morning, my beach bag off the floor, and walked into the bathroom, closing both mine and Patrick’s doors. I took off the cake-ified shirt first, trying to get it over my head without getting even more in my hair. Unfortunately, my jeans were completely saturated, so my attempts to get them off without getting icing all over my arms didn’t work out.

“Jeez louise Andrea, what kind of icing is this? It’s so sticky! Did you use super glue or something!?” I could hear her laughing and stumbling around through the door, which meant that she and Kayt were probably changing into their bathing suits. I finally succeeded in getting my jeans off, but ended up with icing all up and down my arms. I didn’t really care though, considering that I was about to get into a shower, which would probably solve that problem pretty quickly. I turned the water on hot, jumping around for a minute to stay warm, in my weirdly, over-air conditioned bathroom, and then jumped in when I saw the steam rising. I quickly rinsed all the icing off my body, and washed my hair, getting every last bit of the super-glue icing Andrea had somehow created. I shut off the shower, got out, and towel-dried my hair as best I could. It was probably going to get wet again at the beach, so I didn’t stress too much about it. I reached into my bag and grabbed my bathing suit. Or, at least, what I thought was my bathing suit…

“Oh my God!” That little… Andrea had snuck a bikini into my beach bag instead of my usual one-piece suit. I studied it for a second and realized it was the bikini the two of them had forced me into buying a couple weeks ago when we went on our pre-summer shopping trip. I wasn’t ever planning on wearing it though, just shoving it into the back of my closet! Kayt and Andrea were always telling me to wear stuff like shorts and bikinis, but I was just never comfortable enough with the way I looked to wear that sort of stuff. “Screw it,” I thought, “there’s no time to change. If I argue with them about it, we won’t get out of this room in time to go to the beach.” Plus, for some stupid reason, I felt that my friends deserved to at least see the bikini they picked out and forced me to buy. So, I slipped on the two much too small pieces of fabric on, grabbed my bag, and walked out of the bathroom, refusing to give in to the urge to glance at myself in the bathroom mirror. I walked into the room like nothing was different, just so that I could appropriately gauge their reactions.

“Holy shit”…. “Oh my God”… “I just…holy mother of…”

“Oh cut it out,” I yelled jokingly. “I know you two snuck this bikini in my bag, and the ONLY reason I’m going to agree to wear it is because I want to go to the beach! And because you two will never cave and we’ll be stuck in here all day and miss Pat’s graduation.”

“Hey, no missing my graduation!” I swear, I jumped at least 3 feet into the air, and definitely shrieked a little bit too.

“Jesus Christ Pat, I know mom taught you how to knock, so what the fuck?!?” He just looked at me blankly and shrugged. He had a towel around his waist, but wasn’t damp, which led me to the assumption that he was about to get in the shower. “Get in the shower!” But of course, he wasn’t my brother for nothing, so he walked into my room, receiving a “Ewe” and a “put some clothes on” from Kayt and Andrea. He pointed at me with a serious look on his face, and I was just dreading what was about to come out of his mouth.

“Ooooh, what is this? It’s a little bathing suit!! It’s a bathing suit.” At this point, he picked up my Lhasa Apso Skippy who magically appeared in my room, and started dancing with him. “She’s wearing a bikini, she’s wearing a bikini. Bri-Bri’s wearing a BIKINI! They’re going to the beach, and they’re going to go swimming at the BEACH!! With the ocean because it’s the beach, and there’s SAND, it’s going to be SANDY!! At the sandy beach in the BIKINI!!” It was at this point that I really pitied my poor dog. Skippy didn’t seem to care though, and was just sitting there letting Patrick spin him around in circles. I grabbed a pillow off the floor and smacked him in the back of the head with it.

“GET OUT OF MY ROOM YOU DORK!!”

“Ow! She hit me Skippy! Briana hit me! She’s so mean! She hit me! She hit me!” Well, at least he was leaving… He finally made it into his room, and I shut the door in his face. Unfortunately, I could still hear him through the door though. “She shut the door in my face! She’s a poopy head, isn’t she Skippy? She’s a mean poopy head! Well we don’t need her. We’ll have fun on our own.”

I turned around to look at Andrea and Kayt, and we all busted up laughing, trying to be quiet so as to not give Patrick the satisfaction he so desperately wanted. Unfortunately, we didn’t really succeed, and I could almost hear him cheering his victory in his room.

“Okay,” Andrea said, “Since you’ve consented to wear the bikini, will you please also agree to wear this?” She held up a pair of cut-off denim shorts and a hot pink tank top. “Please?” I swear we death stared each other for at least 2 minutes until I gave up.

“Fine, I’ll wear them!” I consented. I knew she’d never cave, and my eyes were watering so much that I couldn’t even see straight.

“Yes! Okay, let’s go, let’s go! I want to go to the beach,” Kayt yelled, jumping up and down. I’m sure by this point, my parents were wondering what the heck was going on in my room. I desperately wanted to get to the beach as well, so I pulled on the shorts, the tank, and slid on my favorite pair of rainbow flip-flops. They were also my only pair of rainbows, so they were really worn down and comfy. I picked up my bag off the floor, which already had my towel, sunglasses, and a bottle of water, tossed my phone in on top of everything, snatched my keys off my desk, and followed the girls out of my house. I hopped into Fred after putting my beach bag in the backseat, and we all drove off in search of a nice, quiet beach.

Of course, finding a nice quiet beach on the first day of summer break in Orange County is no easy task. You must have courage, commitment, and a hunger for adventure. Luckily for us, we had all those things plus a little crazy thrown in there, so we found a nice beach in around 15 minutes, shut Fred off, and hopped out. The beach was totally empty, apart from a group of guys really far off that I could see tackling each other and messing around in the water. They weren't close enough for us to able to tell if we knew them from school, or work, so we just continued on about our business and didn't pay them very much attention. Our business, was, of course, splashing each other with as much water as possible, while avoiding the splashes sent our way. After being splashed by Andrea and Kayt for five minutes straight, I walked out of the water, soaked, and decided to take off my shorts and tank top. One, so they could dry off before I had to go back home, two, so that my phone didn't die from all the water damage it was receiving, and three, I’m pretty sure if I wore the shorts the entire time, Andrea and Kayt would kill me for not showing off the bikini. Luckily for me, the only other people at the beach were that group of guys, and I was pretty sure they were still too far away to see me in the bikini, so I didn't get super self-conscious. I had managed to get my shorts off and my tank top over my head, throwing them on top of my flip flops, before Andrea and Kayt grabbed me from behind and started dragging me through the sand towards the ocean.

"NO NO NO!! Do NOT drag me in there! I am not getting in the water! Let go! You are so not getting me in that water! I will kill both of you! LET GO OF ME!!" I squirmed and wriggled and screamed, but nothing seemed to be working, and they refused to let go of me.

"We're just a little concerned for you Bri. You've been looking a little tired, and we figured a quick dip might make sure you don't fall asleep during Pat's graduation! You don't want asleep during your only brother's graduation, do you?" Kayt asked me while giggling and dragging. I was definitely WIDE AWAKE right then, so she was just making up excuses to distract me while they dragged me off towards my doom.

"Plus," Andrea laughed, "Those guys over there are totally checking you out!" That statement caught my attention, seeing as if that group of guys was witnessing me being dragged into the water, it would be probably be pretty embarrassing for me. No one ever looks good while being dragged backwards through sand, with your hair all messed up, and wriggling around like a crazy person. I was also worried about the fact that I didn't exactly look that great in the bathing suit, and it was moved into a very inappropriate position from all my wriggling. I couldn't exactly pull it up while the two crazy people were dragging by my arms, now could I? I looked up to see if the guys were actually watching me being dragged into the water by my best friends, who I considered to be more like sisters, and I realized something. My friends were the two biggest little liars on the planet! The guys were still all the way down the beach, except now it looked like they were playing soccer instead of wrestling with each other. I would give her the fact that they were moving steadily closer to us, but there was no way that they could tell what exactly was going on. They could probably hear me screaming though, so I shut up, that way they wouldn't come over to find out why some girl was screaming like she was being murdered. 

The entire time I was examining the location of the boys, Drea and Kayt were steadily dragging me closer and closer to the water. I didn't realize how quickly they were moving until I felt wet sand and water against my feet. Before I could process the fact that my feet were touching wet stuff, which meant we had reached the water, it had risen to reach my waist, and was still rising rapidly. Suddenly, Kayt and Andrea stopped moving, let go of me, and I splashed down into the water that was suddenly very deep. Holy Shit! They must have found a cold spot, because that water was freezing my ASS off. I shot to the surface, sputtering and wiping my wet hair off my face and out of my eyes till I could see. When my eyes finally started working, I noticed that Kayt and Drea were still in the water with me, laughing their asses of while pointing at my face, which was currently in my pissed off grimace, one of my favorite, but least used expressions. They were laughing so hard; they didn't even register the fact that I was mad, and moving closer to them. If they were thinking straight, they would have run away, but I got lucky because they obviously weren't paying attention, and they didn't move away from me. 

So, I reached out both my arms, grabbed both of them around their waists, and dragged them back under the water with me. They could both swim very well, and hold their breath for a really long time, so I wasn’t concerned about them. After about a minute under, we all kicked up to the surface and started spluttering and gasping for air. They both glared at me for a second, and then we all started laughing and splashing each other some more. It started to get a little cold in the water, so we swam over to the shore and got out. Andrea and Kayt had forgotten their towels in the trunk so I ran up to get them, while Andrea hurried off towards the bathroom, throwing an “I have to peeeee!!” over her shoulder. I had just grabbed the towels out of Fred, locked him up and turned back towards the beach when I noticed them. The group of boys was suddenly much closer than they had been a minute before, their soccer game seeming to have carried them quite far up the beach towards us. They were so close in fact that they were about to hit Kayt with the soccer ball they were kicking around. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue because she would have heard them getting closer and moved out of the way. However, it seemed that Kayt was currently listening to her iPod, and since she loved blasting her music to deafening levels, I was sure she wouldn’t be able to hear them. There also was the itty-bitty problem that she was laying down just under the edge of a dune, so they couldn’t see her. Of course, being hit by a soccer ball wasn’t life ending, but they were kicking it pretty hard, and I know it wouldn’t feel very nice, and I would be a really bad friend if I just let random people kick soccer balls at her without at least attempting to warn her. I started jogging down the hill that led up to the parking lot Fred was in, waving like a crazy person trying to get Kayt’s, or at the very least the guy’s attention. But, Kayt wouldn’t be Kayt if she didn’t unknowingly and accidentally put herself in stupid positions. I was almost to where she was laying when I noticed the blonde guy kick the soccer ball directly in the direction of Kayt’s head. I ran forward and just managed to kick it away from her head before it hit her; at the speed it was going she probably would have gotten a concussion from it. My foot swinging directly next to her head seemed to be the thing that finally caught Kayt’s attention, and she jumped up off the sand screaming. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was kicking the ball; only what I was kicking it away from. But when I heard the sound of a man being hit in the balls (which I knew from having an older brother and a really good right hook) I looked up.

Oh my God… No fucking way! This was NOT happening to me! I had just… hit… Louis Tomlinson… in the balls. Well, technically, the soccer ball did, but since I kicked the ball, I figured I was still the responsible party. Then, my brain continued to function and processed the images it was receiving, and I realized that I had just hit Louis Tomlinson in the balls… while the rest of One Direction watched.

“Shit!” Oh fuck, did that just come out of my mouth?! I was mentally praying that they didn’t hear me, but judging from the amused looks on their faces (all except Louis who was bent over trying to get the feeling back into his legs) they had definitely heard me. I froze for a sec, wondering if they were suddenly going to get angry, or start yelling or anything. I mean I had just hit their best friend in the balls with a ball! Ha, balls, ball… balls…ball. That’s funny! Okay, focus Briana! I focused on the situation at hand and waited to see what was going to happen. After about a minute of silence (well, everyone was quiet except Louis who was quietly cursing with some very impressive words I stored in my memory to look up when I got home) the boys did what I least expected. Every single one of them burst out laughing. Seriously! Even Louis, who could apparently feel his legs again, was laughing. Niall was actually laughing so hard he turned bright red and fell on the sand. Harry and Louis were holding on to each other, and Liam was laughing so hard I though his lung was about to burst. Zayn was laughing, not as hard as the other guys, but he was still staring at me, which made my stomach flip over. I kind of felt like I was going to puke, in a good way, but still weird and unexplainable. The guys were still laughing, but had started to calm down, and Harry and Liam were looking at me weird, and I realized that Zayn was still staring at me; I was kind of staring back. The second I realized what I was doing I broke eye contact and looked over at Louis, who seemed to be okay now.

“I’m so sorry! I totally wasn’t paying attention to where I was kicking the ball! I didn't mean to hit you in the....your.....that area.” Of course, this statement set off a whole new round of laughter from the boys. Suddenly, their laughter cut off, and before I could figure out why, someone grabbed me from behind. I hadn't been paying attention to what was going on around me, because I had been staring (creepily might I add) at Zayn's smile. I hadn't heard someone coming up behind me, and I shrieked in a totally embarrassing way. I spun around to see Andrea behind me, jumping up and down and just spazzing out in general. Now I have to admit something. I was TOTALLY freaking out. I mean, hello, I was basically standing on a beach, ALONE with One freaking Direction! However, and I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it already, but I JUST HIT/KICKED LOUIS TOMLINSON IN HIS MAN PARTS!! So, it was for that reason that my freak-out had been confined to my brain; boy was my brain having major problems functioning right now! Kayt's freaking-out seemed a bit less controlled than mine, judging by the fact that she was giggling, turning bright red, and staring at Harry laughing. Yeah...she was definitely still waaaay more contained than Andrea, who was still jumping up and down, but had decided to embarrass herself further by adding flailing arms, and pointing frantically at the boys. I definitely needed to teach her more self-control... So, I just put my arms on her shoulders, and was forced to use much more force than I should have needed to hold her down. But hey, at least she finally stopped jumping up and down like a crazy person. Unfortunately though, me touching her alerted her to the fact that I was within arms reach, and she grabbed my hand, dragging me a few feet away from the group.

Do you know how hard it is to look totally unattractive while almost killing yourself from stumbling backwards, while being yanked in the opposite direction, on SAND, which is like, the least stable thing you could possibly walk on. Well, it may be hard for some people, but I seem to have a natural talent for appearing unattractive in situations where I would prefer to appear ATTRACTIVE!! Andrea finally stopped dragging me when she decided we were an acceptable distance away from the group, and twisted my body to face hers.

“I was gone for five seconds, and when I come back, you guys are talking to ONE FUCKING DIRECTION! Oh my God! This is amazing, this is incredible, this is insane, this is just... Oh My God!!”

“Okay, first off, breathe, secondly, yes, that is One Direction, thank you Captain Obvious, and third, STOP FUCKING JUMPING!!” I could hear someone snort, so I twisted around, and saw Niall blushing, and offering me an apologetic look. I just waved at him, in a don't-worry-about-it sort of way, and turned back to face Andrea, who was blushing bright red to her ginger roots. She was obviously avoiding someone's gaze, and I figured it was Niall, since she was looking pointedly at my face, and trying to not blush any more. “You should be happy you weren't here five minutes ago! I kicked their soccer ball away from Kayt, 'cause it was about to smash her head in, and it hit Louis in the...that...his...the man area.”

“YOU HIT LOUIS TOMLINSON IN THE BALLS!?!?” Wow... yep, there's Andrea for you. She froze for a second, and looked over my left shoulder, confirming my suspicion that EVERYONE was now staring at us. Oh joy...I gave her a sarcastic smile and thumbs up, resulting in more blushing and pointed looking-away from hot Irish singer whom she's had a crush on since we had discovered the band in 2010. Andrea's mom had a really funny but also weird obsession with British shows, and the X-Factor had been the first show we had really gotten hooked on. Andrea fell in love with Leona Lewis when she competed, so we watched it every year. It was sorta like a little ritual we had, a thing just for us. She had literally started sobbing when the boys lost, but, hey, look at where they were now. On a beach with us. Yeah, suddenly I was started to remember why we didn't interact with the rest of normal society...or should I say, Andrea was reminding me why.

“Smooth Andrea, smooth. Yes, I accidentally,” at this point, I turned back towards the guys and Kayt, “Accidentally kicked the soccer ball that eventually ended up at some point hitting poor old Louis Tomlinson in the balls!” Now, growing up around boys, I knew that they were very protective of their friends, and their friends'...stuff. So I thought that after kicking an accidentally very well-aimed soccer ball into Louis' man parts, that the boys wouldn't be too happy with me. Surprisingly though, all the guys, including Louis, were smiling at me, and they walked over to join Andrea and I, Kayt following to stand next to me.

“It wasn't your fault,” Niall laughed, speaking to me, but still staring directly at Andrea, who was surprising me by continuing to look pointedly at me, and off down the beach. Now, I knew she wasn't trying to be rude, and I could tell Niall and the guys did as well. She was still blushing, which just proved my theory that she was way too embarrassed to look at the boy whose face was on all of the posters that covered her bedroom walls. Yeah...she really liked Niall! “I wasn't paying attention and almost hit Kayt in the head with it! It was definitely my fault,” Niall said apologetically, looking directly at Kayt now.

Kayt nodded at Niall, accepting his apology silently. Unlike Andrea, Kayt got REALLY quiet when she was nervous, or around people she didn't know very well. I glanced at her to make sure she was doing okay, but she seemed to have her attention focused elsewhere. I followed her line of sight, and saw that she was glancing shyly at Harry, who was (it seemed) glancing right on back. When she saw that harry had caught her looking at him, she turned to face me, and put her head down to stare at the sand. Her face slowly turned bright red; I mean, redder than a redhead blushing, RED! Harry apparently took this as a sign that this was the perfect moment in time to attempt to reassure Kayt that they were really VERY EXTREMELY sorry about the incident, which we all knew already. We could tell they weren't faking in their apologies, and that everyone, especially Niall, felt really bad about scaring her, and coming very close to, but not actually, giving her a concussion.

“Yeah, we're really sorry! We were just messing around, and we didn't see you. Not that you aren't see-able, you're very...see-able. I meant that you were laying down, and you sort of blend into the sand. I mean, because you have a very nice tan, not because you are invisible! Not that I'm insinuating that you're invisible, because you're not, you're very...visible.” Harry gestured at Kayt's body, causing her to attempt to cover her bikini-clad figure as much as she could with her arms. Liam and Louis both shook their heads and covered their faces with their hands at the same time. It probably would have caused me to bust up laughing if my attention hadn't been drawn back to Harry's attempts to dig himself out of the hole he was actually digging much, much deeper. He finally realized what he had said (the epiphany was probably helped along by Kayt's blush and body-cover-up situation) and actually smacked himself in the face. “Not that I'm looking at you-that, 'cause I'm not! I mean, you're-it's totally nice to look at, if you're looking, but I’m not looking! Not to say that I don't want to look, or that it wouldn't be nice, because it's, I mean you're very nice to look at...” Aaaaaand her finally got the clue to shut up.

We all just stood there awkwardly for a minute, looking at each other. Well, I was looking at the boys, but Andrea and Kayt seemed to have a sudden interest in their toenails, and Harry and Niall, in the sky. It was silent for another moment, until Zayn and I simultaneously burst out laughing. After a second, everyone joined us, the laughter lasting for a while before everyone calmed down again. I did notice that it had helped alleviate some of the awkwardness, and Andrea and Kayt were now looking at the boys, which Harry and Niall seemed pretty happy about, judging by the big smiles on both of their faces.

Louis came over and hugged me out of the blue, shocking me, but after a minute I hugged him back, squeezing him tight, and getting squeezed right back. He let go, and turned to speak to Kayt, Andrea and I at the same time. “I'm fine! In fact, if I hadn't been trying to get my breath back, I would have told you how amazing of a kick that was! You're actually quite good! Have you played football before?”

“For a couple of years when I was younger, but not recently. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't even aiming, I just got lucky...or unlucky, I guess.” Harry had grabbed the ball from where it fell, and was now twisting it between his palms, with a mischievous look on his face.

“So, what do you ladies think? Up for a quick game of football?” I looked at Andrea and Kayt, who both nodded their agreement. We certainly weren't going to tell the boys that Kayt had played soccer since she was 8, and still played it in her free time with Andrea and me. 

“Well, that depends…” I said to Harry, halting him from walking away towards the flatter patch of sand the guys were playing on previously. 

“On what?” Zayn asked with a hopeful yet slightly determined look on his face. I stared at him for a second, smiling at the look on his face when I heard a cough from my left, or more accurately, from Andrea, which broke my attention.

“Oh, um, right, that um- well see, it depends on um… Oh right! It depends on which boy we get to steal to be on our team to make it even! That’s what I was going to say- earlier… When I started… speaking... before.” The guys burst out into barely contained laughter again, but quickly calmed down when Zayn shot them a quick glare.

He turned around to face me, speaking sort of quietly and looking down at the ground with a sort of blush on his face. “Well, um… Which one would you- I mean which guy would you- Um, which of us would you pick? To play with?” Harry and Liam snorted, and Zayn’s face turned even brighter red. “I meant the game! The football game- the foot-soccer game. The game. Not like, in general… The game…”

I heard Andrea snort from my left, and Kayt let out a real quiet, “Well, that’s a shame,” which was obviously directed at Harry, who turned almost as red as Zayn in like, 10 seconds. I was impressed.

“Tell me about it,” Andrea and I said at the same time, causing Louis and Liam to bust up laughing, and Harry, Niall, and Zayn to start choking and turning bright red. I was about to say something to Andrea when all of a sudden, Kayt’s phone started blasting the mash-up she had found on YouTube of all of Harry’s solo’s, which she turned into her ringtone. She turned bright red and ran for the phone, which was sitting on her towel, and answered it quickly, shutting off the ringtone that had caused Harry to turn even more red and start looking between the ground and Kayt, obviously debating what to do or say. Kayt’s face suddenly turned panicked though, which caused the guy’s to get worried expressions and step closer to her.

“Oh My God… No, yeah, I mean yes, she’s right here. Oh my- Yeah, here she is.” She basically threw her phone at me scrambling around and grabbing her towel while speaking really quickly to the boys. All I could do was focus on the phone in my hand, and the number I’d known by heart from childhood flashing on the screen. I lifted it up to my ear, preparing for the onslaught that was to come.

“Oh my god, mom I’m SO SORRY!” I saw Andrea register the words and start scrambling around with Kayt, throwing things into the beach bags and flinging sand everywhere. I think I saw the hot-pink tank I was wearing earlier go flying, but I was too busy listening to the almost quiet anger coming through to phone.

“I have been calling you for the last twenty minutes trying to let you know that it was time to come home and get ready. You now have twenty five minutes to leave whatever beach you are currently at, get home, get ready, and get to the school for your brother’s graduation ceremony. If you are not here in time, like I reminded you to be when I agreed to let you and the girls go to the beach the afternoon before the ceremony, there will be problems Briana Skye Baker. Very very bad problems.”

“Okay. Yes, yes, um- Okay definitely. We’re coming right now, I promise. Leaving right now. We’ll be there soon, I swear!” I ended the phone call, looking up just as my shorts flew through the air towards Andrea, who caught them and shoved them into my beach bag, everything else packed up and ready to go. Kayt grabbed her phone, and the hand holding it, pulling me away towards the hill Freddie was parked on. I turned back towards the boys, who were looking at us in confusion, and had actually moved to stand right next to where Andrea was standing.

“I’m so sorry guys! My brother’s graduating from high school and- Ouch Kayt! I’m coming! And we’re running late, so so late, and we completely lost track of time, and JESUS STOP PULLING MY ARM I’M COMING!! I’m so sorry, we have to go! Sorry!” Kayt succeeded in her quest to get me moving and we raced up the hill, throwing open the jeep’s doors, which I had apparently forgotten to lock, and tossing everything into the backseat. I hopped into the driver’s seat, barely remembering to out my seatbelt on, and punching the gas, realizing that by the time we got to my house, we’d have barely ten minutes to change into graduation-appropriate outfits, and get to the high-school. I prayed we’d make it there in time as I pulled out into traffic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please Kudos and/or Comment if you enjoyed or have anything to say! Thanks for reading!!


	3. Chapter 3

“Oh my God, we are so screwed!!! Come on Freddie, go FASTER!!” My foot was slammed down on the gas pedal, trying to make it up the last hill to get to my house. I was so panicky, that I had almost rear-ended 3 cars, and must have yelled “SORRY” out my open window about 20 times. We finally pulled up to my house, a feeling of dread settling in my stomach when I realized all 3 cars were gone. We were the only ones not at Patrick's graduation ceremony! I almost fell out of the car in my haste to get into the house, barely remembering to grab my beach bag, and lock Freddie, before running up the sidewalk and attempting to unlock the front door. I fumbled with my keys for a second, before Andrea grabbed them out of my hand, grabbed my house key, turned it right ways up, and shoved it back in my hand. I nodded in thanks, shoving the key in the lock, swinging the door open, and running to disarm the house alarm. The girls and I bolted up the stairs, throwing the door to my room open, and falling all over each other in our haste to get inside.

“Oh my God, Mom, I love you!!” On my bed were all three of our dresses, laid out with our accessories on top, and our shoes resting on the ground directly under them. My mom must have laid everything out in preparation before she left. Andrea followed my eye line and cheered, her arm flying up in the air, and almost connecting with Kayt’s face, who had moved to step around and in front of her. 

Although my mom had put everything out, she apparently hadn’t felt it appropriate to lay our underwear out for us, so Andrea and Kayt raced towards their overnight bags, and I rushed towards my closet to grab my underthings, tripping over Andrea who was throwing things out of her bag in her search for her stuff, and bumping into Kayt, who was running into the bathroom with her make-up bag in hand. I grabbed my things out of the closet, then going back into the bedroom, I tossed them on the bed, moving my dress to the side so it wouldn’t get damp. Andrea came out of the bathroom she had just disappeared into a moment before, tossing me a towel that I used to wipe down my arms and legs, ridding myself of any excess saltwater or sand. I pulled my bikini bottoms off, and grabbed my underwear, pulling it up quickly, and then moving my hands to the knot at the top of my bikini top, which was knotted in a ridiculous way, and just did NOT feel like coming out.

“Oh come here,” I heard Andrea gasp out exasperatedly, and a second later, the top knot was undone. A few seconds later, so was the bottom knot, and I yanked the top off, grabbing the towel for a quick wipe-down, and then replacing it with my strapless bra, which Drea clasped at the back. “Okay, you're set girly!”

“Thank you so much!” I turned around, and saw that Andrea needed help zipping up the back of her dress, so I zipped, tapped her shoulder to let her know she was good, and then turned back to my bed to grab my coral dress that was laying on it. It had no zipper, so I just pulled it over my head, smoothed it out, and I was almost done. I just needed hair, make-up, and shoes.

At that moment, Kayt scurried out of the bathroom, looking absolutely gorgeous as always. However, she had smeared some mascara on her left eyelid, so as I was hurrying into the bathroom, I yelled to her over my shoulder, “Kayt, mascara, left eye!!”

The next thing I heard was a muffled, “SHIT! Thanks Bri,” and the sound of her wiping at something. I giggled to myself, ducking and grabbing my blow-dryer from under the sink, and pulling my hair out of the pony-tail it was in. It was almost dry, but I needed it completely dry, and it needed to be brushed, to get all the saltwater and sandy tangles out of it. My hair was really one of the only things I liked about myself, the other two being my freckles, and my eyes. I loved my hair because it was very easy to work with, and after about 2 minutes of me blow drying like a mad woman, with some contorting from me and some pushing from Drea who needed to get to the other mirror and finish her make-up, it looked perfect. I pulled my make-up bag out from under the sink after handing the blow dryer off to Andrea, and put on under-eye cover up, blending it in with my fingers. After washing off my hands so I didn't get any cover-up on my dress, I put some mascara on, being careful to not get any on my eyelids, and outlined all the way around my eye with black eyeliner. I finished it off with lip gloss, and shoved everything back under the sink, leaving Andrea, who was trying to get her very temperamental hair to dry, in the bathroom.

I got back to my closet and fished through one of the built-in drawers until I found my nude nylons, moving back over to my bed to get them on. I sat down, gathering the nylons up and trying to get through the arduous process of pulling them up my legs as quickly as I could. For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to get up and begin jumping up and down to get them up my legs faster, and being the completely oblivious idiot I was, I forgot that my mom had set my heels at the foot of my bed so I didn't have to go looking for them. I jumped and landed on my shoes, stumbled, tripped over my tights, and fell, barely catching myself before smashing my head open on the side of my bookcase. I landed face-down on some pillows we had knocked off my bed in our haste to get dressed, and Andrea's overnight bag. I laid there for a minute assessing myself, and making sure the thing in my side was just what felt like a curling iron in Andrea's bag, and not something worse.

I heard Andrea rush out of the bathroom and realized she must have seen the reflection of me falling in the bathroom mirror, and Kayt, who was standing on the other side of my bed, trying to get her dress up all the way without messing up her hair, ran around the side of the bed, joining Andrea next to me. “Briana! Be careful! Jesus, I thought you were going to kill yourself!” Andrea sounded extremely worried, and loud, and she was being muffled by the pillows, so she was probably very close to screaming and demanding that I go to a hospital to make sure nothing was wrong with me. I rolled off the pillows onto my back, one, so I could breathe, two, so I could speak, and three, so she'd know I was capable of movement and not dead.

“I'm okay!” Kayt and Andrea reached down to me, each grabbing an arm and pulling me up. Andrea brushed my dress off and checked over me, while Kayt brushed all my hair off my face. Kayt had apparently deemed me satisfactory, so she stopped messing with my hair, and rushed back over to my bed to finish putting her dress on. I had to hold Andrea's hands away from me, insist I was fine a couple times, and remind her of Patrick's graduation before she finally went back to finishing her make-up.

My tights were completely ruined, since I had ripped them by falling over, so I pulled them off and adjusted my dress. Andrea ran out of the bathroom, make-up done, but her hair only half curled. I made to say something about helping her with it, but she immediately interrupted me after seeing the look on my face.

“I know, I know! I don't have time to finish curling this stupid mop on my head! Kayt, can you braid it for me like Chelsea does?”

Chelsea was Andrea's older sister who was away on a summer vacation/trip to Europe with her college friends. She was amazing at braiding hair, and always did these really cute things with Andrea's hair.

“I can try! Sit down and give me one sec,” Kayt said while hopping next to my bed on one foot while attempting to tie her teal converse standing up/hopping. Unlike Andrea and I, who were both wearing heels to the graduation ceremony, Kayt couldn't walk in heels. In fact, she tried wearing a pair once, and she almost broke my arm when she tripped down a stair, fell onto me, and knocked ME off the last step onto the ground. So yeah, she's not allowed to wear heels anymore. She finished tying her shoe (amazingly) while still standing balancing on one leg, and hurried over to braid Andrea's hair. Andrea has long, gorgeous red hair (which she for some ridiculous reason doesn't seem to really like), which reaches all the way to her waist. Her skin tone is a really pretty pale with freckles combo, but she has the extremely rare red-headed ability to tan without turning into a lobster after being in the sun for five minutes! However, she turns bright red every time she blushes, which kind of makes up for it. Kayt has light brown hair with blonde highlights, which tends to be either slightly wavy or straight, that reaches down to just below her bust line. Kayt is naturally tan, but she tends to get a lot darker by the time June rolls around, what with her sitting around in her front yard in the sun wearing shorts and a tank all the time, and she never really burns. They're both always wearing shorts and dresses, which is completely opposite of me, seeing as I'm the only one of us without a really nice, evenly shaped, toned body.

I'm kind of like a really weird mix of things someone decided to try and see if they would look good on a person. I have short chestnut hair that falls a little above my shoulders, and a pale complexion covered in freckles which I inherited from my father, who is a total ginger. I also inherited his inherent ability to burn if I so much as walk out into the sun, and the whole blushing thing, which caused me to look like an embarrassed crab every time a cute guy so much as says hello to me... or looks at me... or walks past me in a hallway… it's sad, okay? Very sad! I was a little bit taller than Kayt who was 5'4”, at my height of 5'6”, and a little bit taller yet than Andrea, who stood at 5'3”. I had a curvier figure than Andrea and Kayt, who were both thinner and more toned than me.

I know I bitched about it, but I did really appreciate my complexion at times like this, because I had to wear hardly any make-up at all. My skin had always been dry as a child, so when I had gone through puberty, the extra oils had just evened my skin out without causing me to gain acne. My skin was still pretty much always clear, so all I had to put on was cover-up, eyeliner, and mascara. When my hair dries naturally, it gets really curly, but if I blow it dry, it goes straight, so that's the state it's in right now.

“Done,” I heard Kayt say, patting Andrea on the shoulder to let her know her hair was done. It looked like a French braid, but we were in such a hurry, I didn't have time to stop and check. Kayt turned and grabbed my perfume bottle off my dresser, sprayed herself, tossed it to Andrea who spritzed herself, and then turned and sprayed me. Unfortunately, some of it got in my mouth, so I spent a second sputtering and choking and hacking, trying to get it out of my mouth, and waving my hands back and forth in front of my face before turning around towards my bed to grab the gold heels I had tripped over earlier, sliding them onto my feet. I saw Andrea putting her black heels on out of the corner of my eye, and Kayt running out of my door, yelling, “Come on guys, we have 6 minutes before the ceremony starts!”

“Coming,” I yelled back, grabbing my keys and clutch off my desk and following the girls out the bedroom door, closing it behind us. We made our way carefully down the stairs, only pausing to set the alarm and lock the front door. We all climbed into Freddie, me slipping the heels off my feet again so I could drive, the doors slamming shut in tandem, the engine starting and us taking off towards the high school, the earlier, completely unexpected moments with the famous boy band members of One Direction almost forgotten in the back of each of our minds.


End file.
